The Federal Communications Commission's (“FCC”) enhanced 911 (“E911”) initiative strives to improve the emergency call service by providing a mobile telephone user's identification and physical location during a call. To that end, the FCC issued a mandate requiring the communications industry to modify the existing wireless communications architecture and associated wireless phones so that the wireless caller's location may be ascertained from a designated Public Safety Answering Point (“PSAP”). This feature is referred to as Automatic Location Identification (“ALI”).
To date, and with widespread frustration in the wireless communications industry, the introduction of ALI mobile phones has yet to materialize in any significant way. Because of the technological difficulties of modifying the existing communications architecture, FCC has extended the deadline for compliance with the issued mandate at the request of the wireless communications industry.